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Christians in Indonesia are taking few chances this Christmas. As the choirs prep and evangelical rappers rehearse their hip-hop gospel numbers, church leaders are digging bomb pits and coordinating security with local police and the military.

In Jakarta, larger churches have highly visible perimeter security systems, including metal detectors and roadblocks that police and private security will be manning throughout Christmas weekend. Indonesia's government urged churches in rural areas to dig holes in which to place any suspicious objects that might be improvised explosives.

Many Indonesians anticipated more year-end violence because of worsening economic conditions, political unrest, and the strength of militant Islam. This year has seen renewed violence targeting Christians. In late October, on the island of Sulawesi in western Indonesia, Muslim militants beheaded three Christian girls on their way to a Christian school. In early December, also in Sulawesi, a suspected Muslim militant burned down one church.

Representatives of the government met with Muslim fundamentalists to ask them to focus their Christmas weekend demonstrations on things like the economy and to leave out sectarian attacks on Christians who tend to be economically more successful. Local papers just announced that there were millions more unemployed, and the poverty rate has zoomed upward in recent months.

This fall, police announced that they had launched a nationwide security operation "Candle Operation 2005" with 47,750 officers to ensure peaceful Christmas and New Year celebrations. Some moderate Muslim youth will volunteer guard duty at churches over Christmas, according to media reports.

Open Doors reports that more than 600 churches have been destroyed and 20,000 killed in Muslim-Christian violence since the early 1990s in Indonesia.

Be Watchful, Don't Panic

Last Sunday, December 18, Christianity Today interviewed worshippers at the 5,000-member Indonesian Christian Church (GKI) of the Gunung Sahari area of Jakarta. Cars were lined up for a brief anti-bomb inspection in the alleyway leading up to the church entrance. High walls surrounded the church itself.

The early morning service started with a bell ringing and then an announcement about security preparations and Christmas services. The church bulletin listed eight "Suggestions for Security During Christmas." The advice included: "Be watchful. Park away from the church. Don't panic."

Memories of Christmas 2000 are still fresh in the minds of local church leaders. Six years ago, 19 people were killed in coordinated bombings at 11 churches on Christmas Eve.

In those attacks and others, police suspect the involvement of terrorist mastermind Noordin Mohammed Top. A native of Malaysia, Top remains a most-wanted man in Indonesia for his leadership in Jemaah Islamiya, a group linked to al Qaeda.

According to American intelligence sources, another Jemaah Islamiya leader at a 2002 meeting in Bangkok announced that soft targets like churches would be attacked because foreign embassies had become too well protected.

At the GKI church, parishioners and pastors were calm, but not complacent. An elderly man named Hadianto said he wasn't worried.

"In fact, I have gone to two churches today. I want to know how to get closer to God."

Anita Permana, a church volunteer, admitted, "The situation in Indonesia is not too peaceful, but it doesn't scare me. I have God." Youth pastor Imanuel Kristo said this year, "There was more concern than in previous years about security. Rumors are flying."

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December (Web-only) 2005, Vol. 49